Friday, August 12, 2016

Readers are drawn to dynamic (moving) pictures. So the dynamic map on the Miami Herald site caught my eye.

Problem - it's hard to work with. It took me a while to figure out that I could pause the timeline. But the real challenge comes when you have to "guess" how the size of the circle translates into actual number of new Zika cases. You can't hover over the circle to get a count.

In sum the map clearly shows that Zika is spread - and in what Fla counties. But that's about it.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

You wake up this morning and you hear that there is a travel
warning from the federal gov’t (CDC specifically) warning pregnant women “should not travel to this area.”

Here’s just some of what you’re likely to hear from average folks today:

WOW!

Look at that.I
wonder why the mosquitos picked that neighborhood?

They must have something in that neighborhood that those
mosquitos really like.They better find
out what it is.

These must be very smart mosquitos.

Maybe they leave a lot of garbage out there and water all
around.

Those people better not have sex.

They need to stop those people from coming here!

That's the kind of travel ban we need!

More than 1,650 cases of Zika have been reported in U.S.
states.And up until this week these
were the result of either traveling to a Zika infected country or having sex
with someone who was infected outside the US. Local transmission is a game
changer.

However over ½ of the adults in the US have low health
literacy. Far, far more have a poor understanding of science. This means that the science of
insect borne transmission is not well understood by millions.

What we're reading and tuning into

Disclaimer

What I post here is intended only as a forum to discuss ideas. Please be aware that referred to research or sources evolve over time so the documents referred to on this blog may be superseded by new information.

Oh, and BTW I use the following broad definition of Health Literacy:“A health literate person is able to use health concepts and information generatively—applying information to novel situations. This is critical to our efforts to prepare the public to react to complex public health emergencies.”(From invited paper presented by me - Surgeon General’s Report on Health Literacy, September 7 2006, Bethesda Maryland http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthliteracy/toc.html)